The Simplest of Choices
by Akairo Kessho
Summary: Jiraiya makes a choice to take Naruto out of the village at the age of six, to raise him away from the hatred and scorn of the villagers, and to train him to at least be chunin level before he returns, so he can learn of his parents upon his return. Raised away from Konoha, and under the tutelage of a serious Jiraiya, Naruto's return will mark a milestone for Konoha.


Jiraiya and Sarutobi both stood in the Hokage's office, standing next to each other, looking out over the village in silence, until Jiraiya coughed to clear his throat before bringing up something that he had been dreading to talk about, "Sensei, I want to take Naruto out of the village with me until he is twelve, I can clearly see the way that he is living here in the village, and I want to get him out of here, so that he does not have to live like the way he does, suffering from the stubborn hatred of men and women who are getting their children to hate Naruto just as much, but the children do not even know why they hate Naruto."

"But are you sure it would be best for Naruto to be outside the village? While we can see that the general people here cannot stand his presence, it was Minato's wish that he grow up here in the village, as normal as possible." Sarutobi was exasperated, but Jiraiya was resolved on the issue, even if Sarutobi did not like it.

"After the six years of Naruto living here, he has lived in horrid conditions inside the orphanages, been isolated from any and all other children, ignored by every adult that can, and in one case, a man actually HIT Naruto while in a drunken rage. There is no happy life here for Naruto right now, and as such he should be taken from the village."

Jiraiya was incredibly passionate that Naruto be taken from the village, even if Jiraiya could not completely offer a stable life style, anything would be better for Naruto than to stay in the village where he was hated and mistreated, he just had to make Sarutobi see that.

"While I do not like that he may only come back when he is twelve, to be enrolled for a year at the academy, I will take care of him for the next six years. I want to raise him, take care of him, and when he is seven, begin to train him. When he comes back, I would like to have him at least chuunin strength, so that you can reveal his parentage to him."

Jiraiya was very passionate on the matter, it was his prize student's son, who he had thought of as a son, and the feelings had continued on to Naruto, who was after all his godson after Minato named him after the lead protagonist of his first novel.

Thinking for a second, Sarutobi finally asked Jiraiya, "But how will you take care of your spy network and Naruto? Taking care of a six year old is not going to be easy, especially when you are moving around so much, and we both know that you are prone to your more indecent desires."

"Though it will be quite the strain on me, but he cannot stay here like this. Who knows how he will feel towards the village if he grows up ignored, hated and spited? More likely than not, he will go insane here, he really needs to leave the village. I may not be the model choice for a father figure, but I am his family, the only real family that he has left anymore."

Sarutobi sighed at that, and at last, finally gave in to Jiraiya, "So when do you plan on taking the boy then?"

Jiraiya took a second before answering, "I would like to leave with Naruto in the next few days, after giving the kid a few days around me before we leave, rather than just take him with me, while being total strangers."

Sarutobi again sighed, "Alright, I will leave you free for the next three days, begin to get to know Naruto, help him out, buy him nice things, take him out to eat at nice restaurants, give him some happier memories here than what he already has."

Jiraiya nodded, "I will go meet him now, I know where the orphanage is, but if he is not there, where could I look for him?"

"If Naruto is not at the orphanage, you can check either the Ichiraku ramen stand, or a park about half a mile from the orphanage. Occasionally some of the other children from shinobi families will talk and play with him at a park, and the man and his daughter running the ramen stand are very kind to Naruto."

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><p>Jiraiya's first stop to find Naruto was unsuccessful, as he was not at the orphanage when Jiraiya checked there, and something about how the man running the orphanage stiffened at the mention of Naruto set off alarm bells in his head, but there was nothing that he could do about it for the time being, but continue looking for Naruto.<p>

Next he went to the park that Sarutobi had told him about, and while there were several children there, Naruto was not to be found among them. He tried to ask if any of the parents had seen Naruto, but they all ignored him, or directly told him to stop worrying about the "demon boy."

Needless to say, the man that had said it that way was found outside of the hospital a few minutes later with cracked ribs and a large bruise forming over his left eye.

Jiraiya's last stop was the Ichiraku Ramen stand, which did not take long for him to find. Pushing aside the curtain, Jiraiya instantly saw the mop of yellow-blonde hair, which looked so much like Minato's when he was younger.

Jiraiya was struck by a flashback that was eerily similar to the situation he had been in when he had found Minato all those years ago, and had immediately been charmed by the boy.

* * *

><p><em>Jiraiya was stepping into a barbeque restaurant, when he heard a "crash" come from the alleyway beside the restaurant. Going around to the side of the building, Jiraiya looked down the alleyway, to see a mop of bright yellow-blonde hair; the figure was turned away from Jiraiya as they seemed to be digging into a trashcan.<em>

_Jiraiya felt something pull at his heartstrings, looking at the boy that was probably no older than eight, digging into a trashcan, probably for food. "Hey kid, stop it."_

_The boy turned around to face Jiraiya, "I- I'm sorry mister, I know it is wrong, but I am so hungry… I just couldn't-couldn't help myself." The kid hung his head down, his shaggy and tattered hair covering his face. But even as the kid covered his face with his hair, he could see the dirt stained all over his face, it looked as if the kid had not had the chance to bathe in a long time._

_Jiraiya felt himself feeling for the boy, "Here, how about you tell me your name and I will treat you to some real barbeque that is actually fresh, okay?"_

_The boy raised his head, using his hand to pull his hair back out of his face. "Really? Thank you so much sir! My name is Minato by the way, Minato Namikaze!"_

* * *

><p>Looking at the all too familiar yellow-blonde hair, looking just the same as Minato's had when he was digging in that dumpster, Jiraiya could tell that Naruto hadn't bathed in a long time either, his hair was limp and dead looking.<p>

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I just can't afford to help you out, the stand only makes so much money for me and Ayame-chan, we can't afford to give you free food anymore." There was an elderly man behind the counter, and his face was pulled into a sad frown as he watched Naruto's face as he looked like he was about to cry.

This was Jiraiya's chance, so he stepped forward, taking a seat next to Naruto as he called out an order for two beef ramen to the elderly man behind the counter. The man nodded his head, and went to the back to prepare his meal.

"Here kid, let me buy you a meal." Naruto turned to look at the man that had offered to buy a meal for him, "Thank you so much sir! I don't know how I will be able to repay you!" Naruto took in the strange looking man, the white hair, the strange red and grey garb, and the headband with the kanji for oil on it.

Jiraiya couldn't help himself before he asked, "So why aren't you able to pay for a meal here? It is really cheap, and you're an orphan right?"

Naruto looked at Jiraiya curiously, "Yeah, but how did you know that?"

Jiraiya laughed a little, "I'm a ninja of the village, and there are some things I can just tell by looking at people. But either way; shouldn't you be eating at the orphanage? And as a ward of the state, you get a small stipend to spend however you want every month."

Naruto looked confused at that, "I never got a stipend from anyone? And the orphanage stopped letting me back in nearly a week ago, saying I wasn't worth the trouble any more, that I didn't deserve to eat their food."

Jiraiya nearly snapped right then and there at that news, 'The orphanage kicked him out! A WEEK ago! And Sarutobi did not even KNOW about it! Oh he is going to get one Hell of an ass kicking when I get to him!' Jiraiya created a shadow clone that poofed into existence behind him, before it moved out of the stall and began to speed to the Hokage Tower.

Naruto watched the clone pop up in stunned silence, "Wow! That was really cool? What was that? Can you teach me how to do that?"

Jiraiya faked a smile, "Sorry kid, but that was the Shadow Clone Jutsu, a highly advanced jutsu that is very chakra demanding, I could never teach it to a kid such as yourself that hasn't been trained yet."

Naruto looked disappointed, "Well if you are a ninja, there must be something that you could teach me right? That way you can say that you helped train the strongest ninja that ever lived, and the one and only future Godaime of Konoha!"

Another flashback hit Jiraiya at the sentimental speech, Again so eerily similar to when Minato had told him he would become Hokage, "Well that's a pretty big leap there kid, there are some crazy strong people out in the world, and they have had decades to become as strong as they are. But there might be something I could teach you later."

"Wow that would be really cool mister! And by the way, my name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki." There was such optimism in Naruto's voice, which nearly made Jiraiya get choked up because of how similar that Naruto was to Minato, with just a bit more of Kushina's energy in him.

Teuchi came back out from the back of the stand, two bowls of piping hot ramen in his hands, which he set down in front of Naruto and Jiraiya. With a quick "Itadakimasu" they both began eating, Naruto looking like he hadn't had a meal in days as he shoved ramen down his throat in a frantic pace that scared Jiraiya.

From the way that Naruto was eating, Jiraiya could tell that Naruto was going to need a lot more than one bowl of ramen, and motioned Teuchi to continue making more for him. Thirteen bowls of ramen later, Naruto had an extremely content look on his face, while Jiraiya was slightly grumbling about the hit his meager supply of cash he had on hand was going to take.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Jiraiya's shadow clone burst into the Hokage's office with a look of rage on his face, "What the Hell old man, just what the Hell! How could you have let that happen to him, to Minato's own freaking kid, Sensei!"<p>

Hiruzen looked completely off guard by Jiraiya's tirade, "What are you talking about Jiraiya? What has you so worked up? Did something happen to Naruto?"

"Damn right something happened to the poor boy Sensei! Naruto has been living on the street. THE FUCKING STREET! For the past week, the orphanage kicked him out and he had to have been digging for meals in trashcans or begging for free meals from that ramen stand! And he didn't even know what a stipend was Sarutobi! How could you be so fucking lax that you let this happen! This is an absolute disgrace to Minato and his memory! You would rather have Naruto living here hated, out on the street than out of the village with me? Shame on you! Did you have no one looking out for the boy? Did you not think to be constantly checking up on him? I am LIVID right now Hiruzen, I ought to get him out of the village right now, under your poor guidance, why would he ever want to come back?"

Sarutobi was stunned; he didn't even hear a whisper that Naruto had been kicked out of the orphanage, and he had never once received the stipend money he should have been? While Jiraiya's rage was being focused on Sarutobi, Sarutobi's own rage was being directed at the caretakers at the orphanage that he had trusted with Naruto's care.

"I'm sorry Jiraiya, I never should have let this happen, and while it was my incompetence that brought Naruto to the situation he was at, I believe there are some caretakers at the orphanage in for a trip to Ibiki don't you think? And then there is the matter of all of the money that they were stealing from Naruto's personal stipend that he should have been getting."

Jiraiya, thought technically a clone, was just as livid as the real Jiraiya, "The money hardly matters to me Sensei, what matters is that you were not paying enough attention to Minato's son, he deserves a million times better than all of this, and I am going to make sure that he gets a lot better while we are out of the village."

Sarutobi could only nod his head in agreement, "Naruto deserved so much better than what happened to him, you can hardly understand the grief that I feel about the way things went here in the village, Jiriaya. I hope that you can turn his childhood around, and make it a great one, in whatever ways that you can. But I am also not very excited about the headache that the council is going to give cause me over letting you take Naruto out of the village, so we had better keep this quiet until after you two are well away from the village."

* * *

><p>Naruto had long since finished his thirteenth bowl of ramen, as Jiraiya was simply picking at his while they were talking about idle chit chat back and forth. There was an awe struck look on Naruto's face, "So you really trained the Yondaime Hokage? He was like, the most powerful ninja ever! Hokage-Jiji would tell me stories of how great that he was, how he was the most respected man in Konoha."<p>

'If only you know how ironic it is that you see him as such a hero.' Jiraiya shifted on his seat, "I may have trained the strongest ninja that Konoha has seen in a long time, but I am no slouch myself. I was trained by the Sandaime Hokage, and my old team and I are known as the Sennin, the Legendary Three, even though I am the only one that sticks around the village anymore, each of us are as strong as a Kage."

Naruto got a thoughtful look on his face, "Hmm, you don't seem that strong to me. You look like you would complain about having a bad hip if you were to try going up some stairs."

Jiraiya looked really offended, "You brat, I may be getting up there in years, but Sarutobi is over 15 years older than I am, and both of us are still strong enough to get the job done. Never judge a book by its cover Naruto, that's actually an important lesson when it comes to being a ninja."

Now Jiraiya had finally finished his bowl of ramen, he stood up and looked at Naruto, so how about you come stay at my apartment? If you really have nowhere else to stay for now, you can crash at my place for the night and get a decent shower so you don't smell worse than the bottom of a dumpster okay?"

Naruto seemed over joyed at the offer, first he was going to pay for his meal, then he was willing to train him, and now he was going to be willing to let him sleep at his apartment? "Thank you a lot Jiraiya-san, I- I don't know if I could stand sleeping out in an alley any longer."

With that, the two of them left, Jiraiya dropping down the cash to pay for the ramen with a hurt look on his face, it seemed he would definitely need to make a trip to the bank soon, there was only a few hundred ryu left in his pockets, and its not like withdrawing money from the bank would hurt anything, there was a few million ryu in there.

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><p>AN: Okay so that's the first chapter, I have another one written already for this story, it will just need some editing I think. I also have a few more story pilots that I want to post before I begin to update some of them, I want to know what you guys think of all of my ideas before I begin to focus my time onto updating them. With that said, you can expect maybe two more stories to be uploaded, and then I will update them all a few times, see how things go from there.<p> 


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